Taking all the precautions of the pandemic into account, the production of the fourth and final season of Netflix superhit drama series Ozark will commence from November the 9th, 2020. Jason Bateman, the director and the star of the show talked to IndieWire about his working process and his vision for the future.
In the conversation, he talked in length about how the show “Ozark” has helped him grow as an artist. This is a short description of his whole interview with IndieWire.
When asked about his overall experience with Ozark, he said that he is more than satisfied with work that has been accomplished by the cast and crew and the “high hopes” that he had with himself and the team have been met “so far.”
He talks about the scripts of the first two seasons and describes them as a story that has “a lot of mood, danger, and crisis”, and he was anxious about how he will be able to tell this story as a director.
He also gave insights on his unpopular decision to use long lenses and muted color palettes in comedy genre projects which he has done recently. He said that he isn’t a big believer in certain norms that have been set regarding the specifications associated with comedy. He firmly believes that “you can make people laugh and still look good.”
Bateman had won his first Emmy Award in Outstanding Director for a Drama Series for Ozark Season 3 in which he defeated the decade long champion Game of Throne whose eighth and final season had failed to live up to the expectations. Bateman’s reaction to the award was quite calm and composed, which was noticed and approved by the fans of Ozark. He reflected on his award win and said that he has immense gratitude for fans who chose to watch Ozark. He promised to not to take the award for granted and expected himself to be more creative and hardworking with the remaining story.
He has a certain level of predilection towards being a director when compared to being an actor. Throughout this interview and several other interviews as well, Bateman seems to be more interested in the pace, tonality, soundtrack, and the cinematography of Ozark than his acting. He always prefers to guide the conversation towards his colleagues in a positive way.
Bateman likes to know every intricate detail not only about his project but also about other films or TV Series so that if he ever decides to form his own crew, he would know which people to hire.
By the looks of it, he surely has a plan for the future because as he confesses, he regularly visits IMDB Pro to know the name of every junior artist, gaffer and location manager who have been involved in a project that he admires.
Although Bateman is very successful at whatever he is doing right now, he demands more from himself so that he can transcend his game even further.
He told IndieWire that he has “an enormous amount of respect” for a crew that can create a fictitious world for the audience in not more than 60 days. He feels there is still a lot to be learned, especially in the domain of visual effects and also in other areas where he needs to challenge himself.
He dreams of a day when he would strategize a project similar to “Ozark” that not only has the capacity to engage the audience but also has the backbone of financial power and a vision at its fundamentals.
Ozark is a Netflix product that has run for three seasons on the streaming giant’s platform and is now all geared to produce the fourth and the final season which would conclude the bone-chilling story of Marty and Wendy Byrde.
When asked about the script of season 4, Bateman shrugged it off by stating the fact that he is not a writer of the show. The script for season 4 like previous seasons has been written by Chris Mundy. However, he has worked on the big picture of season 4, and he has some idea on how the series is going to end.
Ozark is one of the most highly watched TV series with its viewership spread across the world. It has been criticized for being too dark for TV which Bateman has accepted and cited some technical issues to be the cause of it, the series has received wide recognition for its top-notch tone, pace and character depth. The series is a regular nominee at Emmy Awards and has received in total 32 nominations. The 18 out of 32 nominations have come from season 3 alone. Jason Bateman was also honored for season 3 when he beat Game of Thrones season 8 to win the Outstanding director in drama series.
Jason Bateman is not only a highly talented professional but also a sensible man. He has stepped down from directing any episodes for season 4 because due to the ongoing raging pandemic he feels it would be a lot safer if directors and actors avoid meeting face to face which will not be possible if Bateman remains in charge.
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